Lynchburg city, VA

County Profile

79,497 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Lynchburg city, VA.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

57out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 31% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity1027th of 1,255 counties measured38
Schools730th of 973 counties measured30
Growth687th of 1,226 counties measured47
Housing affordability966th of 1,255 counties measured79
ClimateTop 24% of 1,254 counties measured75
Physical resilienceTop 8% of 1,255 counties measured90
Access1213th of 1,255 counties measured34
Economic stability1054th of 1,255 counties measured37
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 5.3% and the Opportunity signal places Lynchburg city in the bottom 18%.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published profiles, placing Lynchburg city in the top 8% for physical resilience.

The nearest major airport is 99 miles away, which is farther than most measured US locations.

At a glance

Population
79,497
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$57,947
Bottom 30% nationally
Density
1,625/sq mi
48.9 sq mi of land
Median age
28.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Lynchburg city
Virginia
Metro area
Lynchburg, VA
Nearest major airport
GSO
99 mi · Piedmont Triad Intl
Median home value
$229,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.3% is lower than 15% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 0.4% over the past year, to 35,267 employed residents.

38% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 90% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$3,396$57,947Bottom 30%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,184$29,937Bottom 24%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate18.6%Top 22%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute18.5 minBottom 10%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher38.5%Top 10%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment35,267Bottom 45%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-3.2%Bottom 13%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.4%Top 41%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force37,233Bottom 45%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation58.9%Top 49%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.7%Top 18%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate5.3%Top 15%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.73.0
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 5.3% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202460k54k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $57,947 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Lynchburg, VA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers3,280$28,220
Retail Salespersons2,950$30,570
Cashiers2,810$28,390
Registered Nurses2,200$80,450
Home Health and Personal Care Aides2,120$27,810
Stockers and Order Fillers2,080$30,960

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

36% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 54% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 12.9 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
24
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
12.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
36.0%
Bottom 15% in Virginia
Reading proficiency
53.9%
Bottom 20% in Virginia
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
E.C. Glass HighLynchburg City Public Schools1,22013.6
Heritage HighLynchburg City Public Schools1,11315.5
Sandusky MiddleLynchburg City Public Schools58313.927%47%
Paul Laurence Dunbar Middle for InnovationLynchburg City Public Schools53111.537%67%
Linkhorne MiddleLynchburg City Public Schools51911.842%57%
Heritage ElementaryLynchburg City Public Schools44813.621%45%
Sheffield ElementaryLynchburg City Public Schools44312.341%52%
Robert S. Payne ElementaryLynchburg City Public Schools43513.249%60%
Bedford Hills ElementaryLynchburg City Public Schools40213.039%54%
Linkhorne ElementaryLynchburg City Public Schools37811.524%44%
Perrymont ElementaryLynchburg City Public Schools37712.628%41%
Paul Munro ElementaryLynchburg City Public Schools35613.773%77%

95.1% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Virginia’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,073 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.0 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
22.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,073
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$229,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.97Top 20%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate48.9%Bottom 1%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±9234,208Top 23%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$29$1,073Top 24%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$7,235$229,800Top 34%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income22.2%Top 11%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate16.1%Top 42%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
47/ 100
Ranks 687 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, measured from 2020 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has grown 2% since 2020, reaching 80,301 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 3.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
241
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
3.0
Top 48% nationally
Year over year
+14%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202480k79k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
202020212022202320242025472143
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−41%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 87°F and January a low of 26°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 42.8 inches, including 11.6 inches of snow.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station LYNCHBURG RGNL AP, 5.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation42.8"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall11.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low26°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high87°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing40°F1991-2020 Normals

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.

Physical risk

90 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are strong wind, earthquake and hurricane.

Strong windModerate
HurricaneModerate
LightningModerate
EarthquakeModerate
LandslideModerate
Cold waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: inland flooding, winter weather, ice storm, heat wave, tornado, hail, wildfire.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Lynchburg city records 6.4 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 13.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 30.2 per 100,000 residents in Lynchburg city.

Homicide
6.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
13.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
30.2
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
11.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Lynchburg city as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Lynchburg city rather than Lynchburg city itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes
Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 99 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Piedmont Triad IntlGSO99 mi10,001 ft
Richmond IntlRIC103 mi9,003 ft
Raleigh-Durham IntlRDU108 mi10,000 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
57
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

Cities in Lynchburg city, VA